


Mirrorbright

by dancingpenguin57



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: And just a bit of angst, Canon Compliant, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Force Bond (Star Wars), Post-TLJ, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-06 01:12:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13400280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancingpenguin57/pseuds/dancingpenguin57
Summary: After thirteen years of identical desert meals Rey decides that she enjoys cooking with new ingredients.Very mild (not plot-related) spoilers for Bloodline by Claudia Gray.





	Mirrorbright

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AgustinaKazuyo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgustinaKazuyo/gifts).



Ben ignored the sting that emanated from where the hot baking tray had nudged against his wrist, knowing that the mark would join dozens of other burns that already marred his hands.

Rey was oblivious. She inhaled deeply and moaned with satisfaction. “Smells good!”

“Very good for your first effort,” the chef agreed mildly, though he didn’t look at either of them. His eyes darted around the kitchen with impatience.

Rey was oblivious to that, too. “What else can we do, while we wait for this to cool down?”

The chef worried his bottom lip between his teeth, and Ben couldn’t help raising his eyebrows to the man in commiseration. It was almost lunch hour, he had over fourteen thousand mouths to feed, and was blind to the fact that Rey’s was the most important.

Ben had never much cared for food, treating mealtime as just another necessary ritual that interrupted his schedule, but in the days since Rey had arrived he had begun to see the appeal. She seemed completely fascinated by every mouthful, asking him endless questions in an attempt to deconstruct exactly what she was eating and where it came from. Today she had asked him _who_ made the food on the Resurrection. When Ben had indicated that he neither knew nor cared she had stood immediately, insisting that they both tour the kitchens. “Food doesn’t just appear from nowhere,” she had said, and her tone had indicated that this was something that he wasn’t allowed to argue with her about.

And so he had entered his Destroyer’s kitchen for the first time with her by his side. Rey had stalked right up the head chef and asked him to show her how to make a fruit-filled flatbread that she had _loved_ , and the Supreme Leader’s presence meant that the man had had no choice but to indulge her, though he did not bother to hide his impatience.

That was how, impossibly, he and Rey had not spent the second half of their morning sparring, as he had intended, but rather measuring and kneading and checking temperatures.

“Kylo,” she said now, and the sound was jarring enough to bring him back to the present. She hadn’t called him anything other than ‘Ben’ since she had arrived; but they were in public, now. She smiled apologetically when he looked at her, nodding to indicate the chef’s retreating back.

“I asked him to get us something green,” she explained, knowing that Ben hadn’t been listening to the end of their exchange.

“Good. Now you just need to ask him to prepare it for us so we can leave.”

Rey shook her head gently. “This is important.”

“You act as if I’ve never prepared food in my life. I have.” Ben rolled his eyes, infusing extra stubbornness in his voice to distract himself from the melody swimming forth from his memory.

Rey shrugged. “Maybe you have, but you obviously haven’t done it _here_ , on this ship that you’re so obsessed with.”

The chef returned, carrying two large baskets filled with dozens of varieties of green vegetables with origins spanning the galaxy. Rey looked at the bounty of leaves the way a child would look at sweets. Ben made a mental note to command that more salads be included with their meals.

Contrary to her specific request Rey was drawn to a plant that was more blue than green, picking it up and lifting it to her nose to sniff at it delicately. His heart skipped a beat. Why _that_ one? Why did fate _hate_ him so much? He clenched his fist as if he could crush the lyrics twinkling through his mind.

“What’s this one?” She asked the chef.

“Ruica,” Ben answered, before the other man had a chance to. He reached out and she handed it to him, cocking her head curiously.

“I know how to prepare this,” Ben heard himself say.

Rey _beamed_ at him, and his eyes locked onto her. In his periphery he was aware of the chef backing away obediently, seeming grateful for the reprieve.

“Ruica is bitter. You might not like the taste,” Ben warned her.

Rey shook her head obstinately, still smiling. “You can’t talk me out of this. This is what we’re eating. How do we make it?”

“We boil it,” he said, resigned.

Rey began to fill a pot with water, nodding at the vegetable in his hand. “Get it ready, then,” she commanded.

Obediently he began to wash the leaves and demonstrate how to to cut them at diagonals. When she asked him why the direction was important he had to admit that he didn’t know, and now that he considered it with adult-level logic he realised that it didn’t make sense. But that was the way he had been taught, so he continued. Rey accepted the non-answer, and reached over him to take a handful of the leaves and begin cutting alongside him.

At one point he felt a little tingle as she flitted against his mind, and when he looked down at her she was blushing, studiously ignoring his gaze. He had never been more desperate to know someone’s thoughts, but he kept to himself respectfully.

While they waited for the ruica to boil she began to tell him about her food on Jakku. Insta-bread and green slabs of meat. He couldn’t fathom why she was telling him this and so now he gave into temptation and touched her thoughts lightly, seeing that for thirteen long years her daily meal was identical, the days varying only by how hungry she felt after she ate. Now he _really_ didn’t know why she was telling him this.

She felt him, of course, and she shrugged shyly in response. “That’s me.”

“Not anymore,” he said with finality.

She frowned at him. “Yes, it _is_. Just because I have other things now doesn’t change that that’s what I had back then.”

As if on cue the ruica whistled, and they wordlessly decided to pause the argument.

When the leaves were dry he arranged them on two plates in the necessary crescent moon shape -- realising again that it didn’t make sense, but that’s the way he had been taught -- and Rey sliced up the flatbread they had prepared earlier to place inside the hollows he made.

He watched her take the first bite.

“It’s… well, you know, it seems like it’s probably very nourishing,” she said diplomatically around her mouthful. Ben remembered a time when poor table manners would make him simply get up and leave his company to be slovenly without him, but Rey’s gracelessness was endearing, just like everything else about her.

“It will make you strong,” he explained, and he was unable to hide the sadness that infused his voice.

Rey chewed a few more times and swallowed before speaking again. “Thank you for showing this to me,” she said softly, and he knew that she had discerned his thoughts. All of them.

He nodded tightly.

She turned her eyes back to her plate and he saw her visibly steel herself before impaling more of the bitter leaves onto her fork.

“You don’t have to eat it.”

“I won’t let it go to waste,” she said firmly.

“It won’t,” he reassured her. “It will be sanitised and mixed in with the other leftovers and made into waybread to stock the transports for longer journeys.”

Rey smiled at him. “So you _did_ know something about where the food came from.”

She rested her chin in one hand, the other holding her fork upright against her plate, twirling it idly. The light reflecting off the smooth surface mesmerised him. His guard dropped, just for the smallest second, but it was enough to release the flood.

 _Mirrorbright shines the moon, its glow as soft as an ember_  
_When the moon is mirrorbright, take this time to remember_  
 _Those you have loved but are gone_  
 _Those who kept you so safe and warm_  
 _The mirrorbright moon lets you see_  
 _Those who have ceased to be_  
 _Mirrorbright shines the moon, as fires die to their embers_  
 _Those you loved are with you still --_  
 _The moon will help you remember_

His mother’s voice faded, and he became painfully aware of Rey hovering at the edge of his thoughts, watching. Listening. He looked up from her fork to see her smile was gone and tears were falling unrestrainedly down her face.

“Ben,” she began, but was cut off by a sudden clanging alarm. On the third beat the kitchen droids all jolted and their mode shifted from preparation to delivery. They began to swarm from the room carrying Wookiee-sized stacks of serving trays.

Ben stood forcefully, his chair screeching against the tiled floor before clattering to the ground. If anyone objected to his disregard for the furniture he didn’t notice.

“It’s time to leave,” he said, and was unendingly grateful when Rey stood and followed him without another word.

They moved into the elevator and simultaneously turned to face the doors without looking at each other. She still hadn’t said a word, but he could feel her trying to project a calm, soothing aura. This distressed him more than anything else.

“Why don’t you hate me for it?” he gritted out, because she must. She should. He had had everything that she had spent years dreaming of, and he left it behind.

“I know it wasn’t like that,” she whispered, and a small part of him dared to hope that she truly did understand. “I would only hate you if you had forgotten.”

A bark of bleak, humourless laughter escaped him. “I tried to.”

“But you _didn’t_. And now you never will. I won’t let you.” She moved toward him and the back of her knuckles brushed his.

**Author's Note:**

> This began as an idea for a cute li'l domestic scene. And then I died. Sorry.
> 
> For the uninitiated, Mirrorbright is an Alderaanian lullaby that first appeared in Bloodline by Claudia Gray. Please read it if you haven't already!


End file.
